One of Australia's biggest drug providers is threatening to slow down delivery times of vital medicines if it doesn't receive more money from the government.
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Australian Pharmaceutical Industries, which supplies prescription drugs to more than 90 per cent of Australian pharmacies, said it would be forced to make some ''trade offs'' if federal funding doesn't increase by 2015.
API and four other wholesalers are paid a combined $190 million a year for delivering medicines listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, such as cholesterol, antibiotics and asthma medication, anywhere in Australia within 24 hours of being ordered by Australia's 5000 community pharmacies.
API chief executive officer Stephen Roche said ''if the government doesn't wish to supplement the income into the next agreement, there will need to be some trade offs''.
''Instead of it being 24 hours, it might be delivery within 72 hours except for emergency items,'' Mr Roche told Fairfax Media.
''It is a matter of what is important from a social policy perspective, and then what are the minimum standards the government would be looking to maintain and then some consultation about how we may be able to get there.''
The government and the community pharmacy body, the Pharmacy Guild, will hold fresh talks next year deciding how much wholesaler distributors will be paid for ensuring prompt supply - called the Community Service Obligation - from 2015 to 2020.
Greg Turnbull, spokesman for the Pharmacy Guild, said the guild would be ''very reluctant to see a decline in delivery standards''.
''If the API has a case about why it's not viable, it can put it to the government at any time,'' Mr Turnbull said.
A spokesman for Health Minister Tanya Plibersek said these concerns would be discussed at the next talks. A spokesman for opposition health spokesman Peter Dutton said the Coalition appreciated ''the importance of ensuring timely access to pharmaceuticals, irrespective of where people live''.
Carol Bennett, CEO of the Consumers Health Forum, said wholesalers were paid a ''significant amount of money to guarantee supply''.
''I'd fully expect see more campaigning by those with vested interests over the next few months,'' she said.
The president of the Australian Medical Association, Steve Hambleton, said ''everyone in the country'' needed to tighten their healthcare budgets and, without seeing their profit margins, it would be difficult for him to comment on the situation for API.
''But Medicare rebates for patients have been cut, patients were already paying for the government's black hole and both this government and the opposition have said budgets will be tightened.
''There is no reason to think API will be immune from those cuts.''
